#146 in Crime & mystery
An Instance of the Fingerpost
- 698
- Pages
- about 13 h
- Reading time
Affiliate link: buying through it supports BookRank at no extra cost to you.
Our view
“An Instance of the Fingerpost” is an intricate historical mystery in which four narrators give conflicting accounts of the same events. Set in Restoration Oxford in the early days of modern science, it leaves some readers wanting to start again after the last account. Others find the crowd of characters, many of them historical, hard to follow, and its unpleasant narrators wearing company. It suits readers who relish history in fine detail.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
An Instance of the Fingerpost is a 1997 historical mystery novel by Iain Pears.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 8.0 across 61 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 29% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Crime & mystery average of 7.6. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.7 | 6 | 10% |
| Hardcover | 8.0 | 55 | 90% |
Frequently asked
How long is An Instance of the Fingerpost?
It has 698 pages — longer than 98% of the ranked books in Crime & mystery.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Crime & mystery — with scores between 7.7 and 7.8, closest to this book.
